As requested, Tek, here is video from my weapons competition. I placed 2nd out of 4 in my division. Not bad considering I made up the routine 3 days before and only had my shiny new competition bo the day before that. I apologize for the video quality, but I forgot my camera and had to have someone use my phone instead.

I've never been good at improvising in the past, but had a lot of fun trying to figure out what I wanted to do. The routine itself is fairly simple, but flashy. I based it off of a short 10 or 12 move routine my instructor had on dvd, which I knew was too short. My goal was to come up with a routine that flowed well between flashy techniques, that pushed me to work hard, and strikes while having balance and symmetry, but without being too repetitive. My goal for competition was to get through it and not drop it! All in all I think I succeeded pretty for such short notice.

I have another month before the next tournament to come up with something else about twice as long. Speaking with one of the other competitors, she used chon-ji, our white belt pattern as the basis for her stances because of it's small footprint, and the often limited space at competition. I think I might do something similar.

As for the rest of the tournament, I didn't spar, but in forms I took 2nd out of 5, and in breaking I came in last, but am still pleased with my performance. I had to go first, did my break, 3 board back kick first try, but was outnumbered in boards. I wasn't willing to push my power level as I wasn't sure just how healed I was and was concerned that if I didn't break it first try, I might re-injure myself.

All in all a good competition for having only been back for a couple of weeks.

Great performance Laura. Kept it short and sweet. I wasn't aware you had weapons training. Like my brother you had a natural talent with weapons forms. 3 days to create a short routine and pull it off in competition takes weapons showmanship that I just don't have.

Have you ever seen Michael Bernardo? He is spectacular with the BO. He was on a show called WMAC masters back in the mid 90's.

I noticed you got your twirling skills, power stances, power strikes all down. But where are those thunderous Kihap/kiais at the end of those power strikes? Add those in along with an ultra killer focus facial expression and you've got yourself a winner.

Believe me your performance was great. Keep those power strikes, deep stance, and balance and you should always place.

Weapons training is new to our club. Myself and another instructor were given the opportunity to start training in a weapon of our choice with the intention of eventually teaching it and adding it to our clubs curriculum about two years ago. I am doing the bo, and the other instructor is doing the sword. Mostly I've just been picking up techniques from various dvd's that my instructor passed on to me, and from what I've found on the internet. I'm fortunate to also have been able to attend a few seminars as my instructor knows nothing about the bo.

With low ceilings at my club and at home, and long winters, it's been difficult to train, in addition to being on the injured list for most of last year. As such, the bo program had to be put on hold for a year, but I am now ramping it back up. Students are broken down into groups of 5 and have a short weapons class of about 15 minutes on different days after their regular class.

Tek, I have not heard of the person you mentioned, but I will look him up to see if I can find anything. I'm always looking for good sources.

It's funny you should mention the ki'ias as that is the one comment my instructor had. I'm used to just yelling at the end of my patterns so it feels weird to yell in the middle. It's something I need to work on, although I'm guessing my neighbors might get a little upset if I yell too loudly

All in all I'm pleased with how everything went and I'm really enjoying the weather and being able to train again. It's also fun to start something new as the speed at which you can improve is so much greater. It makes it that much more rewarding.

Hey Laura,Good to hear you enjoyed it and did well in the competition.To get a good idea on the bo principals, visit some kobudo seminars. Or have a look at some basic kobudo youtube video's. There are some great video's of the Matayoshi school on youtube.Also Ryukyu Kobujustu Hozon Shinko Kai has some video's posted. You might also find Yamani-ryu Bojutsu.

I must say that I'm not really keen on those flashy 'made up' forms, since most performers don't have a clue of what the weapon is all about. I hope you might be interested in the real bo applications. Learning some of these basics could help you in 'making' your future forms drastically. (sp?)

Thanks for the info Ives, I've been all over YouTube checking out everything I can get my hands on, both flash and form, in between seminars, but I will look specifically for those items.

I agree with you that there is a tendency towards flash over form, unfortunately if you are going to compete, then you have to be able to do the flashy stuff. Just like in a traditional forms competition, high kicks score better, even if it's not a high kick in the form.

I personally find the tricks, rolls and throws to be more of a challenge, which helps to keep me motivated to keep practicing.